Kumori
:“To be Kumori, is to be alone. If there is one simple and unavoidable truth in the entire galaxy, it is this; for every yin there is a yang. For in every light there is darkness, and in every shadow there is the gleam of hope. To have fallen so far and still have learned nothing, that is the Kumori’s true failing…” '' :-Kenshi Samasu To be called '''Kumori' has meant several different things over the years. The word itself, Kumori, means "shadow". As a people the Kumori were mainly Humans who shared a view of the force as a source of strength that required both good and evil to be in balance. The Kumori were originally created on Tishi by a rouge Mitsukai named Kenshi Samasu. Kenshi's beliefs about the force differed with that of the other Elders on Tishi. Kenshi decided to strike out on his own and to teach the force to any sentient willing to listen, a practice considered as treason by most other Mitsukai. History of the Kumori Though the Kumori are most famously known for the "Shadows" of Chinine, their ancestry actually goes back many thousands of years to an entirely different planet. The first people to call themselves Kumori were a tribe of Humans living on ancient Tishi. Regarded by the Mitsukai at best as lesser beings and at worst as savages, the Kumori were the life long enemies of the ancient Mitsukai. While the Mitsukai lived a life of wealth, power, and luxary, the Kumori were forced to live in the wilderness, empoverished and struggling to survive. The Kumori themselves believed this was due to the Mitsukai's possession of the "Blade of Balance", an artifact beleived by both the Kumori and the Mitsukai to contain the power of God. Learning to use this "God's Power" and then use it to over throw the Mitsukai was the long held goal of the Chieftain of the Kumori. Only through this power would the Kumori be able to compete with their rivals. However, most all knowledge about "God's Power" was kept secret from even a large amount of the Mitsukai. Only the Elders and Temple Guards knew exactly how to use it. "God's Power" as it was called was actually in fact the force. The Kumori Wars In the year 1,010,681BBY the fires of war once again engulfed Tishi. The Kumori Chieftain made a final desperate play for power, invading the Mitsukai's country in an attempt to steal the Blade of Balance from the Mitsukai's sacred Temple. While in the beginning it had seemed as if the war would end quickly with the Kumori being militarily outmatched by their Mitsukai counterparts, the Kumori quickly adapted a gorrilla style of combat that prolonged the conflict and caused the casualties to slowly mount. In total the Kumori Wars lasted for over 30 years. Years marked by ambush attacks on civilian and military targets alike by the Kumori, which took a heavy toll. The war may have proven too much for the Mitsukai had it not been for the efforts of two promising Temple Guards, Atsuke Makura and Kenshi Samasu. Atsuke saw the potential of the force to be used as a weapon of war, but the Elders at the time did not like the idea of using "God's Power" in such a violent way. :"There is so much more that can be done with this power though. The fools... they're afraid. Afraid of the potential in all of us to do great and terrible things." :''-''Atsuke Makura Disobeying the orders of the Elders, Atsuke and Kenshi took it upon themselves to bring the fight back to the Kumori. Using the force Atsuke had developed a unique style of combat which he referred to as the "Shadow Arts". By combining the force's abilities to affect both the mental and physical capacities of an opponent, Atsuke was able to "Make illusions real" as he would describe it. Atsuke and Kenshi used their powers to terrorize the Kumori raiders, devistating their numbers and their resolve. It was thanks largely to the efforts of these two Mitsukai that the wars finally came to an end in the year 1,010,649 BBY. Enter Samasu In the wake of the Kumori wars the human population of Tishi was left decimated and defeated. Their old Chieftain killed in action, the humans were split into seperate tribes. They might have all died out had it not been for one Mitsukai. Kenshi Samasu, the appretice of Atsuke Makura who helped to defeat the Kumori during the wars, had recently been premoted to Elder among the Mitsukai. Along with Atsuke and several others, Kenshi helped develop their force abilities into specialized forms of combat to be used for war. As time pressed on Atsuke and the other Elder's behavior grew increasingly bizarre. Atsuke would lock himself away in his study for days on end conducting his research and the others began to speak of conspiracy and consalidation of power. Kenshi did not like what seemed to be coming over the others and his uneasiness finally reached its breaking point when the other Elders accused Atsuke of treason. His old friend being sentenced to death, at first Kenshi didn't know quite what to make of it. After Atsuke's execution Kenshi decided to do some investigating into exactly what had happened himself. It wasn't until he stumbled across one of Atsuke's notebooks did he discover the truth. :"through my research into the source of the blades power I've discovered a dark and terrible truth. The blade is no god or divinity. It is in fact a parasitic organism. A being in the force whose power is great enough to have blinded us all to its intentions and even its existence. It's ability to slip in and out of our consciousness and blend with our thoughts makes it an undeniable threat. I can hear its voice in my mind's ear even now, as I write this letter. It's become increasingly difficult to know exactly which thoughts are my own and which are being imposed upon me. There's no telling how many of the other elders it has corrupted." :-Atsuke Makura Learning of the corruptive power of the Blade of Balance and its possible influence on the others, Kenshi wasted no time. He fled from the Temple as soon as possible lest he be discovered and suffer the same fate as his old friend. In his exile, Kenshi came across the tribes of old Kumori living in the wilderness. At first they treated him as a hostile, capturing and imprisoning the former Mitsukai Elder. The Kumori believed they could use Kenshi as a bargaining chip in order to blackmail the other Mitsukai. Kenshi however that the Mitsukai would not bargain, but instead would use their new powers to destroy the Kumori and Kenshi as well if they were to find them. The Kumori's new leader did not trust Kenshi. Instead he went on with his plan to blackmail the Mitsukai. Sure enough a legion of Temple guards arrived shortly thereafter led by the Elder Jiro Rakurai. Jiro and his guards did not even pretend to be interested in treating with the Kumori, they killed the Kumori leader on sight and began their destruction of their village. Amid the chaos a young man named Lucas hid from the invading Mitsukai inside the village's dungeons. It was there that where he first met Kenshi Samasu locked away behind bars. Kenshi convinced young Lucas to release him and in exchange Kenshi would prove himself by saving the Kumori from Jiro and his temple guards. The Legend of Tenkai :"God's power when wielded by the hand of either man or Mistukai has the potential for great evil. It's strange, you can feel it even now in the wake of such death and destruction. In each of us I can feel the darkness which we had claimed to have purged from the very foundations of the galaxy. With such terrible power infecting all things, how can we still believe in peace?" :-Kenshi Samasu In the year 1,010,252 BBY, as the Kumori legends would tell, a man with wings of white would rise from the fire's of war to breathe new life into the Kumori and save them from their torment. This is taken from the "Ledend of Tenkai", the oldest story among the Kumori that in fact was the tale of Kenshi Samasu. The Legend begins with Kenshi's defense of the Kumori against the man he had once called a brother, Mitsukai Elder Jiro Rakurai. The battle was described in texts to have been so intense that it split the sky and the earth. Thunderbolts rained from the sky and a deluge washed away the enemies of the Kumori. What the Kumori scribes were describing were the feirce force powers used by the two Mitsukai who displayed levels of control of the force that day that have not been matched for thousands of years. In the end Kenshi's powers were enough to cause Jiro to pull back, but the Elders would not forget about their former comrade's betrayal. After the battle the Kumori accepted Kenshi at last and made him their new leader. They also gave him a new title as well, "Tenkai". Which in the Kumori's language meant "Revolution". Kenshi accepted his new title, fearing that it would not be long before the Mitsukai went too far in their reach for power he decided he would train the human Kumori in the ways of the force as well in order to fight back. Kenshi belived that God's Power, of the force, could be used in a more peaceful way that would be able to stop the run away dark energy the Mitsukai were beginning to use. This was the beginning of the Kumori as they are known today and their earliest cocepts of balance regarding the force. The fall of the Mitsukai Some sixteen years after Kenshi's rise as "Tenkai" among the Kumori, his worst fears about the Elders seemed to have been realized. Only three remained of the original seven who continually plotted against one another. Once word of Kenshi's training of non Mitsukai reached their ears the Elders were outraged. They quickly assembled a team to hunt down the rebel leader and dispose of him. Leading the team were the sons of Kenshi's old friend Atsuke, Luster and Jack Makura. The two brothers infiltrated Kenshi's secret village hidden in the forest using the force. It would later be said by a Kumori Chieftain named Anjuu; "Ours is a hidden village, only those among the Kumori could ever find it. All others are doomed to wander the forests, lost for all time.'" '''''During their infiltration Luster and Jack were captured and brought before Kenshi. He explained to the two brothers about his friendship with their father and the corruption he believed to be taking place among the Mitsukai Elders. Kenshi reasoned that the only way to reclaim the Mitsukai from the Blade of Balance would be to get rid of the other elders. Luster agreed to help but Jack was weary of Kenshi, privately confiding to Luster that Kenshi's intentions could be to simply have them help him obtain the blade for himself. Luster however felt he could trust Kenshi and eventually talked Jack into going along with the plan. When the two brothers returned to their home however, they stumbled upon a grizzly scene. Their home had been destroyed and their mother slain during their absence. The Elders mistrust had gone deeper then Jack, Luster or even Kenshi had anticipated. In order to protect the Blade of Balance's secret they would eliminate anyone could potentially leak the information. It wouldn't be long before they would come for Jack and Luster. Kenshi urged the two brothers to be patient while he rallied his Kumori, but Jack was not one to sit idly by while the men who murdered both his parents and now intended to murder him and his brother remained free. Luster remained adamant that the two should wait for word from Kenshi before making a move, but after a month in hiding with no word from the Kumori, Jack decided he could live in fear no longer... Jack planned to infiltrate the Temple of Balance, take the blade and destroy it himself. Late one night while his brother slept Jack set his plan into action. Being as skilled with the force as Jack was, slipping passed the guards was little trouble. However, what he did not anticipate was what would happen when he laid his hands on the Blade of Balance. The Elders could sense the sudden spike of power within the blade through the force when Jack took it from its resting place and they immediately rushed to confront him. As the Elders tried to kill him the rage in Jack grew. In his anger Jack began to use the Blade to finish off the Elders, one by one. Using the parasite's power directly and in such large amounts exponentially sped up the rate at which it bonded itself to Jack and soon he found his emotions running beyond his control. The Blade began to take over and Jack's blood rampage spilled out into the Mitsukai village. Luster arrived too late to save Jack, in a last ditch attempt to free himself from the Blade's grip Jack attempted to use its power on himself. The result of which was a catastrophe that engulfed and destroyed much of the planet Tishi. The Shadows of Chinine